In today's software research and development organizations, an incredible amount of time and resources is typically required in setting up a working environment, which typically includes multiple machines and devices that are networked together and configured to run various software applications and suites that span across the machines and possibly other devices. A proper setup of a working environment typically requires the individual configuration of numerous software components that together form a complex interdependent network of machinery and software installations, but there are various problems associated with setting up these environments. For example, users typically need to learn how to configure each software component in the technology stack but most of those installs may actually be outside their areas of expertise.
The existence of numerous input values and pre-configuration requirements for underlying installations increases the possibility of typographic or misconfiguration errors by a user. Even if the user was somewhat familiar with how to configure the underlying software, a simple user input or configuration error at some point along the way might manifest itself only much later in the technology stack, thereby resulting in a potentially tremendous waste of time.
Human limitations often force some processes to be linear even though some of them might be able to be parallelized with automated software to increase efficiency. Even if the environment can be distributed so that various independent tasks can be executed simultaneously across different machines, though, the user is typically limited to being able to only perform one configuration task at a time.
The manual configuration of specialized environments is usually dependent on individuals who have specific knowledge about those configurations. Should the user be unavailable at any point during the process, all of the knowledge acquired by that user with regard to the setup of the environment would automatically become unavailable. In most cases, users do not want to set up a configuration on their own personal machines but on some other machine of their choosing. However, current frameworks do not allow for remote machines to be used for the execution nor do they provide active communication with these remote machines. Thus, users are typically required to constantly monitor the execution of the associated topology, which provides the pertinent configuration specifications, in setting up the environment.
Current frameworks do not allow for proper exiting from all relevant tasks, let alone reporting of the success or failure of those tasks. Users often desire to trigger a run of their topologies without human intervention so that results are available upon their return, but current frameworks do not allow for scheduling of the execution of topologies at any given time. Also, current frameworks do not allow for a predefined selection of topologies to be executed simultaneously based on the user's selection, nor do they effectively indicate whether the set up of a particular software configuration has been validated and certified.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a way to address these and other deficiencies associated with the prior art.